The Indian VC model mimics the American VC model of backing Tech founders and of plowing in large capital behind these founders. It follows the diktats of build fast, break fast, move fast and create new frontiers in building digital first businesses.
But is the model fully suited for India?
India is full of service based small businesses predominantly run by non-technical business-background founders, who have not been able to digitally transform themselves. Primarily because they do not understand the architectural thought process that is required for running a digital business.
Barring the exceptions that you keep hearing of, typical digital-first tech founders are young founders who understand building tech well but find it difficult to build businesses since they don’t have relevant business building experience. They are able to raise early stage capital in the range of INR 1-3 crores, which eventually gets wasted in figuring out business models that can be retro-fitted into the products that they have built.
Retro-fitting, requires larger dollars than just the one odd crore and the argument further gets strengthened when we compare the USD 1-2 mn seed rounds that the US ecosystem provides to their founders. The reality is that if we follow the American VC model, we need to replicate the USD 1-2 mn seed rounds at angel levels for retrofitting models and for being ok to accept this burn in search of the holy grail.
And if you have been in the ecosystem, you would be aware that the Indian angel does not provide USD 1-2 mn cheques and you would also be aware of the fact that the majority of the limited capital of INR 1-2 odd crores gets wasted in development of digital first companies by tech founders.
That’s where we come in.
At Favcy Venture Builders, we build digital first businesses with non technical founders, who bring market depth and knowledge but need a partner to help them capture their market spaces digitally.
Favcy Venture Builders provide a digital platform that combines key skills, experience, capital and networks to build digital-first startups for idea-stage non-tech founders. The system is set up to provide the right environment for growth and to improve the Quality and Value of Startup equity.
We are the pioneers of digital-first venture building in India. In fact, Favcy is the only digital-first venture builder in the world for idea stage non-tech founders.
Why Favcy?
Typically, non-tech founders have a longer time-to-market journey because of the high cost of hiring tech teams that bring the tech know-how and the fact that non-tech founders do not attract VC money as quickly as founders from a tech background. This is where Favcy comes in and changes the landscape by creating an internal architecture to overcome these inherent challenges for non-tech founders and to accelerate their zero to one journey.
For Angel investors in idea-stage ventures, Favcy provides a curated deal flow in a segment where tested frameworks for evaluation were rarely seen due to the high risk involved with idea-stgae ventures that predominantly showed a high failure rate. We have been able to mitigate that risk by providing frameworks to founders that ensure they do the right thing and build the right product when starting up.
How does Favcy build successful ventures?
At the heart of the ecosystem, lie the three pillars of collaborative venture building:
Co-Ideate with INBY: INBY (or ideas not built yet) provides a collaborative setting to network, associate, grow and fast-track your zero to one journey. INBY also brings together the physical aspect of venture building for asipiring entrpreneurs to hatch their idea, refine it everyday & build a successful startup. By bringing the right people together, in the right environment, ideas are better articulated and setup to transform into successful ventures
Co-Build with FVB Assembly Lines: Favcy provides tested and proven assembly lines to improve the quality and value of startup equity at an early-stage. Co-building starts with Idea validation, Business Model Validation and a Founder Market Fit assessment and then moves through the Product Assembly Line, Growth Assembly Line and Scale Assembly Line. A portfolio of 25 ventures across different industries speaks volumes about the efficiency and effectiveness of the venture builder itself. FavcyOS acts as a shared platform of plug and play tech modules for creating digital first products that cater to all possible business models thereby accelerating speed to market.
Co-Invest with 1stCheque: The third pillar aims to ‘democratise early-stage startup investment’ for investors. 1stCheque provides first time Angel investors with a platform to understand the science of early stage startup investment. A pre-vetted deal flow for angel investors filtered by Favcy Venture Builders creates an opportunity for investors and founders to get the right deal with the right people. The process also acts as a litmus test for the thesis built for each venture by leveraging the feedback loop from the community of 3,000+ members at 1stCheque.
What have we achieved?
A portfolio of over 25 successful Startups that have been built through the venture builder by skilled strategists, project planners, resource allocators and brilliant executors.
A 4x growth in revenue since 2020 despite the pandemic situation in the country
Successfully partnered with a SEBI-Registered AIF venture fund in India through our strategic tie up with Openbook VC